Elie Wiesel Memorial House, Sighetu Marmației

The house stands at Strada Tudor Vladimirescu 1 in Sighetu Marmației, in a neighbourhood once home to much of the town's Jewish community. Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet on 30 September 1928 and grew up in this house. In 1944, at the age of 15, he was deported with his family to Auschwitz, and he survived the camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war he studied in Paris, became a writer and settled in the United States. His book "Night" has been translated into more than 30 languages. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and died in 2016. After the deportations the house was looted, and under communism it was nationalised and divided between two families. Most of the original furniture was lost, and the objects on display today were bought or donated. The museum opened in 2002 and, after rehabilitation and restoration, reopened on 6 October 2022 with a new permanent exhibition. The exhibition presents the life of the Jewish community of Maramureș through religious and everyday objects of the Jews of Sighet, religious books and records of rabbinic debates, photographs and documents, as well as the deportation and the Holocaust in Maramureș. The basement hosts conferences and cultural events, and the inner courtyard occasionally holds open-air exhibitions. The house is a historic monument (LMI code MM-IV-m-B-04838) and is part of the Maramureș Museum in Sighetu Marmației, an institution of Maramureș County Council. Nearby, at Strada Basarabiei 10, is the Vizhnitzer Kloiz synagogue, close to which Elie Wiesel lived as a child.